Battery drains very quickly even when camera is off - Arlo VMS4330

[Shammy]

Why does my camera night infrared come on when I have the camera set to off?

[Wklovelace3]

Secaz- have you noticed any difference in motion sensitivity? I also noticed something today. When the person icon lights up orange and it records a video it goes off after the video stops recording but then briefly comes back on as if its detecting more motion but its really not. No video follows after it comes on the second time

[secaz]

Wklovelace3 - have not been observing much so far this morning, not a lot of activity yet here... will keep an eye open for motion sensitivity behavior, though, as the day progresses and there's more activity here...

Yesterday I found two cams where the resolution had changed all by its lonesome.  I always use low res for best battery life, and I found two cams that were set to OPTIMZE... I never use that setting... so, if anyone is noticing battery drain, and are using the low res setting for best battery life, check you cam res JUST IN CASE, as with two of mine, the res setting magically changed to a higer res...

And I still have batteries stuck at 100% that should in no way report 100%... so I have no idea what my battery capacity is in any given camera... I went and did my garage cam yesterday becuase I knew there was no way that could still be 100% after a week with an unusually high level of activity here during the past week and I had also done a lot of live feeds with that cam... I put the battery I took out into my battery charger and it took a LONG TIME to charge, so that proves right there that there was no way that battery should STILL have been reporting 100% after an entire week...

[Wklovelace3]

Secaz- mine too keeps going from low to optimize. I guess its all tied together. Im down to 65% . just charged Sunday. You would think that this issue would be a priority for them. There not the ones climbing the ladders every week though. Its an inconvenience but also its shortening the lifespan of these very exspensive batteries. On average you get 300-500 charge cycles on a lithium ion battery before you get capacity loss. So do the math they dont fix it soon everyones battery will be shot soon. Age and charge cycles affect life of the battery. So our batteries will die prematurely because they cant get there firmware straight

[Hoboryan]

Are the other Arlo products having the same battery issues? or just the Pro?

[JPC]

Can I sign up for the previous Firmwares(Base/Cam) and iOs App(2.4.9) only, Arlo?. This was working for me flawlessly.. I don't use web so it's all good.. I need those two-(Firmware/App) not just the firmwares for compatibility reasons in case you ask...  

[Nancy_L]

JPC (Virtuoso) I have a copy of the IOS Arlo 2.4.9.ipa App.  It is 94mb.  I always save copies of my old apps just in case.  I did try downgrading to the old version of the app but of course it is not the problem.  It is the old firmware that I want and a way to keep Netgear from pushing updates to me that I don't want.

[JPC]

@Nancy_L

Thanks.. but that copy of yours is registered to you only and it's limited to amount of users.. Of course, it can be installed prolly' on previous versions of iOS but not in my case... Yes, definitely for you it will work if Arlo can put you back to previous firmwares (base/cam).. Make sure you ask for both else you'll still have issues.. If only we have options on those previous Firmwares to download and let us install it ourselves just like Netgear's routers where you can fallback in case something happens.. Arlo used to have them listed on a directory until they took it down. 

[Wklovelace3]

My motion detection is definitely hit or miss. Im watching cars go by live on camera two pass right in front of camera one and nothing. At 55% i usually get around 40 cars a day on my street. Today i have 2 . one garbage truck and one bucket truck. This bug has messes up more than the batteries. Also my camera resolution moves on its own. Keep putting it in low best battery and it goes all by itself back to optimized. I guess theres no way to change the firmware ourselves? They sure arent doing much about it

[JPC]

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@Wklovelace3 wrote:
 I guess theres no way to change the firmware ourselves? They sure arent doing much about it

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Since there's no option in the App/Web to download and Install Firmware then we can't do anything to ourselves.. At this time, the only option is signup to Arlo's field trial and maybe then you can request the previous firmwares/App to put it back... 

[secaz]

Wklovelace3 - motion detection is an issue here, too.  I am rarely picking up humans, so I've had to crank the sensitivty.  Arlo is missing big things, too, and I know because I have two forward facing cams for the street and often times just one cam picks up motion of a car or light truck... and I live where lots are SMALL I have a postage stamp for my front yard... and the distance of my garage cam to the street is slightly more than the length of a small pickup truck... so that my garage cam misses vehicles going by at times blows my mind.  And at time of day when there is no reason NOT to... dusk and dawn can be problematic, but even so, with the camera SO CLOSE to the street?  Arlo is wholly unreliable... my best bet is to go outside and LOOK if I want to know what's going on.  Have issues doing live feeds a lot of times, stupid Android app times out or refuses to connect, that's another really frustrating thing, is the POS Adnroid app...

[Wklovelace3]

Ok was wondering if it was just me having the motion issues.

[Chase84]

I don't know about the rest of you but I truly love have a piece of hardware sitting in my house that I have 0 control over. I don't even get notified of firmware updates coming to it. They should take a page out of Samsung's book. Anytime the are releasing a firmware update they send out an email a few days before. I am seriously considering rippimg this entire system out. Going on almost a month now and no fix. Netgear, this is absoutley pathetic. I like some other work in IT for a living. If a vendor I work with acted like this, we would sicking dogs on them. With you people we get no information and the absolute run around. Pathetic. If I treated people in this manner, I wouldn't have a job or client base for very long. 

[secaz]

Just had a HUGE late 70's vintage van go by and only one of my two forward facing cameras picked it up... and the one that missed it was set to 95 percent...!!!  How on EARTH does Arlo miss something that frigging BIG?

[secaz]

Chase84 - totally agree with you.

I have such an unwarm and unfuzzy about Arlo, I put the system on its own router and with its own subnet to try and isolate it from other devices on my network... there's something unholy going on with the system, honestly... and the fact that Netgear won't comment, or even APOLOGIZE, is pathetic as well...

[mrchicken]

I have four Arlo Pro cameras. I keep two mounted outside and the other two inside the house. The outside two are always on, whereas the two indoors are always off when we're home. I've noticed recently that the indoor cameras will sometimes "flash" red despite being turned off. Flash isn't quite the right word because the red lights stay on for a variable amount of time but usually about five seconds. I've also noticed the indoor camera batteries have been draining quickly -- much more quickly than the outdoor cameras, again, despite being turned off. The cameras are acting as if they're recording, or at the very least, sensing that it is seeing something. But they are turned off. Why is this happening? It makes me us very uncomfortable and leery that someone might be on the "other end" watching us while we're just going about our daily business.

Extra note for Netgear/Arlo: Please improve your website and especially the customer service. You've made it nearly impossible for me to contact you or the community.

[Wklovelace3]

Yep. Ir lights staying. Theres a firmware bug. Everyones batteries are draining. Dont turn it off instead disarm. That will help but they still drain a bit. There working on it youre gonna have to create a custom mode. Go to modes and add mode. In that custom mode name it outdoor only or whatever you wanna call it. Then only add the 2 outdoor cameras on that mode leave the inside one off the mode. It will say add device. Only add outdoor cameras. Then you can adjust motion and recording time etc as you do now. So when you want all of them on armed mode as usual when you get home switch to outdoor only mode. Leave cameras on they will be disarmed by default since you have not added them. So there on but wont record. This helps but still battery drain is an issue there working on. They drain much faster off though. So until they fix it just switch between modes and leave all cameras on

[wilsonlm]

I also have two indoor cameras that i keep turned off while i am at home. I have noticed them detecting motion and acting as if they are recording when they are turned off too but when i log in to my account- it doesn't show any saved videos. Im wondering why they just started doing this? It's only started within the last few weeks.

[Kennylovelace]

Read the above post. Theres a bug. The may 15th firmware update messed things up.

[mrchicken]

Thanks for the reply. Sounds innocent enough, and I hope it really is just a bug. I figured this must have been a known issue, but navigating this website and message board has been pretty tedious. Not sure what it is about this website, but I'm having a hard time accessing posts and replying. The "Ask a Question" button doesn't seem to do anything at all, and most posts don't even load.

[Wklovelace3]

I know. Everything is wacky. Sometimes when i login it takes me to a totally different site with purple background. This whole thing is just crazy. Yea i hope its a bug also if its a hack job we could be in trouble. I have had these over a year and usually doesnt take a month to fix a problem. Makes you wonder if they can even fix it at all. I used to go 2 months in between charges now its about 2 weeks. Something is definitely off. The disarm thing i told you to do was working great a week ago and now it seems they drain no matter what. But they drain faster while off. I just switch between modes. Armed for day and a custom night mode that only leaves outside one armed. Its the best we can do for now

[iseeyou2018]

The reason why everyone is having a problem with virtually every aspect of Arlo, is because Netgear has left them to die. Google "Netgear splits from Arlo"

The reason batteries are draining at an increased rate is because Arlo has been hacked and do not have the resources to fix it.

Do not put any of your cams in an area that is personal.

[paddos]

Seeing same IR drain even when disarmed not just off. All my cams in lite areas so have turned off ir and battery drain is back to normal. Not an acceptable fix but does isolate the cause.

Seen other bugs in lastest release as well:

1. Live streaming is timing out 10 to 20 % attempts
2. Have had the audio stick on live feed and does not turn off. Have to exit app to turn off audio
3. Arlo Q's when set to take a snapshot will push notifications even with box unchecked..
4. Motion sensitivity has been degraded
5. Video resolution setting being reset without user change

Since Arlo is not provided status of issues may be good for us to at least have a complete inventory of "bugs" to help bring attention. Any other observations beyond the ir and the 5 listed with 2.5.4?

@JamesC. @DawnM

[Wklovelace3]

Not for me . Thats pretty much it. My signal strength does go from 3 to 2 bars throughout the day. Never used to. Its going on a month that all these issues started . it only helps to bring it to there attention if they actually pay attention. They dont seem to be to attentive to anyone.. No communication no eta for fix .support is useless. Starting to wonder if any of this will get fixed

[TomMac]

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Do not put any of your cams in an area that is personal.

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That is normal sense and why the Primary holder can turn OFF the camera in settings so shared users can not turn on

The reason why everyone is having a problem with virtually every aspect of Arlo, is because Netgear has left them to die. Google "Netgear splits from Arlo"

They haven't been left to die to my knowledge.... just a normal spin off of a company... it will prob need some regrow time to get service fully back up tho

The reason batteries are draining at an increased rate is because Arlo has been hacked and do not have the resources to fix it.

Batteries were draining due to a bug in the FW which left the IR lights on under certain conditions... this bug has been swatted and shouldn't be a issue .... None of my Arlo, Pro, Pro2 lights are showing excessive draining like some users have had.

[TomMac]

TMK, the ir light bug has been fixed and a  new fw will be issued soon